Sparks Fly

Chapter 13

Peeta doesn't hesitate with his response. "I love you, too, Katniss," he whispers back before closing the gap between us and kissing me deeply.

I move so that I am now straddling him, my hands linked behind his neck. He slides an arm around my shoulders, the other finding its home on the back of my thigh.

I pull back the slightest bit and grin at him. "I love you," I repeat, and there's something like pure euphoria on his face.

"Say it again."

I smile wider. "I love you."

"One more time," he says.

I cup his face in my hands. "I love you, Peeta Mellark. More than anyone has ever loved another person. You are selfless and kind and beautiful. I am the luckiest girl alive to be able to call you mine. And I love you ."

There's fireworks ricocheting and exploding in my chest, illuminating my broken soul with warmth and light and color. I feel like I'm floating, and the only thing tethering me to the earth is this brilliant boy before me.

Peeta runs his hands up and down my thighs, sending a shiver down my spine. His eyes seem to glow with happiness. "You're incredible," he breathes.

I lean in, and I can feel him smiling while we kiss. My finger traces his waistband as I trail my lips down the side of his throat, eliciting a small groan from Peeta.

I clap my hand over his mouth, but his eyes twinkle up at me.

"My mother and sister are upstairs!" I hiss at him. "Not to mention my best friend in the other room."

He removes my hand from where it covers his mouth, kisses it, and holds it to his cheek. Peeta looks up at me slyly. "I'm only human, Katniss. You can't just get on top of me and do that without expecting a reaction, sweetheart."

I'm going to eat him alive.

Just then, Peeta sits up straighter, looking at me with concern. "I think your cheek is starting to bleed."

I hold up my hand to my face and it comes away with a few red spots. "Not badly," I say.

Although it's not bleeding heavily, Peeta scoops me up and lays me on the couch before disappearing into the kitchen. He comes back with a sterile length of gauze that he presses gently to the cut.

"I think that's enough excitement for tonight," he says with a smile. "Though you've simply got to stop getting head wounds that reopen whenever we kiss. It really puts a damper on the situation."

I laugh softly.

"Let's get you to bed," he says.

I'm fully capable of walking on my own, but Peeta insists that I shouldn't do anything to increase blood flow to my head, so he picks me up bridal style and carries me to my bed. He plants a kiss on my forehead, then my lips, and goes to leave the room. Just before he leaves, he whispers, "Good night, Katniss. I love you."

"I love you, too."

It takes two days for the storm to blow itself out, leaving us with drifts higher than my head. Another day before the path is cleared from the Victor's Village to the square. During this time I help tend to Gale, apply snow coat to my cheek, try to remember everything I can about the uprising in District 8, in case it will help us. Peeta and I keep our affection minimal for fear that it will make my cheek worse, so we end up spending a lot of time helping Prim with her schoolwork, seeing as she has now missed four days of school due to the blizzard. I'm rubbish and get easily frustrated, but it turns out that Peeta has a natural knack for it. After the third day, the swelling in my face has finally gone down, leaving me with an itchy, healing wound and a very black eye.